


Of the Seventeenth of December and a Little Party

by Thegreenofyoureyes



Series: Christmas Fics 2015 [17]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teachers, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, I like this one, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-05-07 09:43:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5452124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thegreenofyoureyes/pseuds/Thegreenofyoureyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was December 17th, the last day before the holiday break. Luke’s students had just taken their last test of the year- on biomes and types of pollution- and Ashton was a Creative Writing (and Journalism, though not on that day) teacher who would probably get skinned alive if he gave out a test. Everything was winding down at the old school. In fact, most students weren't even bothering to come. </p><p>Perhaps that's why they decided to throw a party. It was Ashton’s idea to torture them a little bit first. Luke had said there was a *huge* in class assignment due, full of awful math and horrid reading. It was going to be hundreds of points. Ashton, in a stroke of brilliance, said they were going to spend the day reading horrible old short stories translated from Old English. Maybe a handful of students would enjoy it, were it not the day before Winter break.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of the Seventeenth of December and a Little Party

**Author's Note:**

> Day 17! @Tanniri on Tumblr is lovely and amazing, and she fell asleep while I was writing this. Comment if you please, I'd love to hear it!

It was December 17th, the last day before the holiday break. Luke’s students had just taken their last test of the year- on biomes and types of pollution- and Ashton was a Creative Writing (and Journalism, though not on that day) teacher who would probably get skinned alive if he gave out a test. Everything was winding down at the old school. In fact, most students weren't even bothering to come. 

Perhaps that's why they decided to throw a party. It was Ashton’s idea to torture them a little bit first. Luke had said there was a *huge* in class assignment due, full of awful math and horrid reading. It was going to be hundreds of points. Ashton, in a stroke of brilliance, said they were going to spend the day reading horrible old short stories translated from Old English. Maybe a handful of students would enjoy it, were it not the day before Winter break. 

Luke could see the tension etched on the 10 students that decided to come. He'd even gone so far as to print 30 pages worth of worksheet for them to “do” (that they would, of course, all be using throughout the next quarter in genuine) just to see their faces as they flipped through it. He didn't even start the class with the usual fun introductory lecture that made him everyone’s favorite science teacher. They were to get straight to work. About 5 minutes in, when all the students were quietly writing (and sniffling) away, he went to the front. 

“Hey, guys,” he said, a glint in his eye “how about we go on a little walk before we finish this up, yeah?”

“Mr. H? It's 22 degrees outside. It's way too cold for walking,” a student, David, said. He was a good kid, mostly. He worked hard when he showed up and he was much better than all his friends, so Luke liked him plenty. 

“Well we’ll just have to walk inside, then, won't we? Come on! I know you've all got to have cabin fever!”

“But don't we have to finish this assignment?” A quiet girl, Alyssa, asked. 

“We’ll worry about that later. Get your stuff, and let's go. I'm thinking somewhere with windows,” Luke said, heading out. 

It was with that comment that his favorite student, a girl named Sam, caught on. Ashton’s room had outset, floor to ceiling Windows on two sides, connecting his walls as he had a corner room. It was never not bright and lovely, and provided a stark contrast to the windowless dungeon Luke, and all the science teachers, called their classroom. He had an amazing hood ventilation system, though, and an eye wash station that included a fire blanket so Ashton could have his natural sunshine. (Luke was actually glad Ashton got the room he did. His fiancé (of several years) needed sunshine just about as much as he needed water and would absolutely go crazy in a room like Luke’s. The sun addiction was one of Luke’s favorite of Ashton’s traits.)

The students didn't, and weren't supposed to, know they were dating. It was a personal preference thing as much as it was official policy. Until they were actually married, it was inappropriate for them to flaunt their relationship. Mostly, though, they were fine with breaking rules. They ran a great deal of important clubs between them, and the school would perish if they left. They only kept it a secret because it gave them a bit more freedom, and because they loved watching students half figure it out. 

It wasn't exactly a well-kept secret. Whenever Luke didn't have a class he was up in Ashton’s room (although Ashton had fought hard to make his room a safe place. There were always a handful of people in it that didn't have his class that period, or even that year, and simply needed a place to go and be safe. As such, they were never alone) and he would often interject in whatever strange lecture Ashton was giving about writing. His personal favorite was the one where Ashton talked passionately about just how amazing Ziggy Stardust was. 

When they had finished climbing the stairs to the top floor, about half of the students were just wanting to get back and finish their work. It was only when they got to Ashton’s door, and sad his “Come in we’re open(minded)” sign that they knew something was up. 

They walked in on Ashton lecturing something horrid about the language within the Scarlet Letter, which the students didn't even have in front of them. There was a sea of dead eyes, students wondering who this was and where their favorite teacher had gone. Luke knew Ashton actually hated the Scarlet Letter. It made his passion all the better. 

“Hey,” Luke said as he walked in like he owned the place “I think it's probably time.”

His students followed reluctantly, and Ashton’s looked quizzically behind themselves. 

“Right. You think? Alrighty. Real quick, let me just say I hate the Scarlet Letter, and you're all welcome to tell Mr. Hood that. Yes, I know he's the soccer coach, yes I'll fight him anyway,” Ashton said, pausing briefly to collect himself before continuing “So, here's the deal. There's a bunch of snacks and stuff in my back closet. This isn't actually an hour and a half long torture session. Mr. H and I are throwing you a party.”

With that, Ashton and a handful of students, those who would follow him anywhere, went and got the various snacks out. It was a beautiful array that they set out on the printer table next to Ashton’s desk. When Luke saw just how much Ashton’s students adored him, how safe and valid and smart they always felt when they had him, Luke fell in love a little bit more. 

“So, take whatever snacks you'd like, and get comfy. I'm gonna put on Yellow Submarine. It's not a holiday movie, but I like it a lot so that's what's going on. You're totally welcome to ignore it and talk if ya want. And, Mr H’s students? Make yourself at home. Couches fit however many you can squeeze on. It's nice to see you,” Ashton said, sitting down. 

A few students moved to the table and got a plate. There was a lot of ambient chitchat, and Luke of course found himself drawn to the conversation about music Ashton was having with a student. Ashton would always, no matter what, make time to check out students’ suggestions. It was the easiest way, he said, to make them feel comfortable enough to share their work. If he could like (or pretend to like, as the case may be) whatever they showed him, then maybe he'd like their piece too. This particular student was taking about an ACapella band that Luke knew Ashton had played a few times at home before. Luke had her in his second Red period, he knew she was quiet. It was lovely. 

Ashton was so engaged in the girl, he almost missed David taking 5 cookies. Almost. 

“Hey!” He yelled, albeit playfully “are you a socialist or a libertarian? Leave some for everyone else.”

“I don't think I'm either of those, sir,” David replied, joking as well. 

“You're not a socialist?” Ashton asked, appealed. And yeah, Luke loved him. 

“No? I don't think so anyway. Isn't a socialist what Stalin was? I'm not that, whatever that is.”

Ashton’s eyes lit up more than they usually did. Before Luke even had a second to think, Ashton was quickly dialing a number and letting it ring, putting the phone on speaker. 

“Hello?” A familiar voice said from the other line. It was Calum Hood, the school’s soccer coach and higher level History and English teacher. Also, a close friend. 

“Hey, Calum. Just a quick question,” Ashton said, his mischief apparent. 

“Go for it?” Calum replied hesitantly. 

“Was Stalin a socialist?”

Luke could almost hear Calum’s rage over the phone. 

“God no!” He said “Stalin wasn't even a communist. He was, at best, someone who saw collectivism as a means to get more power. A socialist wouldn't kill people in Gulags, or appoint himself supreme leader. Why would you even ask something like that, Ashton?”

“Because one of my kids just took a bunch of cookies and then said he wasn't a socialist because Stalin was,” Luke replied instead. 

“You're having cookies without me?” Calum asked, sounding a little less hurt about that than he was about the original question. 

“Yes. We’re having a pa--” but Ashton was cut off by a shuffling sound on the other line. 

“There better be some cookies left Irwin, or I'm gonna sick my robot army on you,” Michael Clifford, Computer Science and Robotics teacher, said. 

“You mean the ones that get stuck in the corners all the time? Also what are you doing out of your lair? Don't you have a class?” Ashton asked. 

“Yeah, I did. I told them they could either go to Starbucks or go and bother you.”

“Is that who all these kids are? I was wondering.”

“Actually,” Calum said, “I have a class now too. And it's an English class so I probably shouldn't be talking about Stalin. There better be some cookies for us later, though. Or you and Luke are making more.” He hung up after that, and a great deal of the classroom was in stitches. 

Sam, though. 

“You and Mr. I made these?” She asked Luke, knowing full-well what she was asking. 

“Yeah, we did,” Ashton replied for Luke, who was a bit frozen up “contrary to popular belief, teachers actually don't sleep in coffins in the basement of the school. Or, at least, we don't during the night. I can't really say what Mr. H is doing down there otherwise. Are you sleeping in a coffin?”

“No, I'm teaching the next generation about our environment. Just, without windows. You took them all, clearly,” Luke said, gesturing to the grand, open windows that were revealing the snowy scene outside.

“Shut up about my windows or you're walking home.”

Sam didn't even have it in herself to make anything out of that. Luke could see on her face, though, that she knew something more than she had come to school knowing. Luke couldn't help but pull out his phone and text Ashton a quick “I love you” to which Ashton responded back almost immediately. 

Luke spent the rest of the party watching Actual Sunshine Ashton Irwin (his fiancé!) bouncing around his room, talking about everything under the stars. It was a beautiful sight, although it ended briefly when they first bell rung and he had to go back downstairs for a bit, to torture a new class. It was nice to be in the sun, especially with how frosty the world had been recently. Although Ashton, especially when he was with his students, certainly served to make it warmer.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm thinking I'll probably extend this AU to a bunch of short fics about 5sos as cute teachers. I'm kind of in love with it, to be honest.


End file.
